I'm offering 2 new colorways that will be special order. Send me a message on Etsy or through email and I will make an Etsy listing for you. It will take slightly longer to ship as I will dye to order.
Guy Fawkes
Lone Ranger
I've decided to participate in the Secret Pal Swap again. I had such great partners in the last 2 rounds I couldn't resist.
What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely not like? I love natural fibers, soft wools and cotton. I am not a fan of acrylic yarn
What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I have a basket for my circular needles and a vase for my straights. I need a better option for circs
How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I learned to knit in 2002, so 8 years. I consider myself intermediate, I could always learn more.
Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? I have an Amazon and Etsy wishlists. I also have a Babies R Us registry.
What’s your favorite scent? I love citrus scents. I also like lavender and cinnamon.
Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? I have a huge sweet tooth. I love toffee, peppermint chocolate. My husband is English, so any English candies are always a treat for him.
What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I sew and have a dying business. I don't spin and am not really interested in it.
What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I like alternative, surf guitar, and rock. I can play mp3s
What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand? I love blues and greens (think sea colors). I prefer vibrant colors over muted. I'm not a fan of orange.
What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I am married and expecting my first child (April 12). We have an 8 1/2 year old Black lab.
Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? I wear scarves, hats and mittens. No ponchos!!!
What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I love to knit socks. I also knit sweaters and am really getting into cute dishcloth patterns.
What are you knitting right now? I'm working on the Raha Scarf out of quiviut, Drop Stitch Cable Cardi out of Peruvia, Oktoberfest Socks, Great American Aran Afghan, and Kris Knits Dishcloth January KAL
Do you like to receive handmade gifts? I love handmade gifts
Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I prefer circular needles. I was introduced to addi turbos recently and am slowly replacing my needles.
Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? both
How old is your oldest UFO? 4 years old
What is your favorite holiday? What winter holiday do you observe? I love Halloween. I celebrate Yule and Christmas.
Is there anything that you collect? I collect funky salt and pepper shakers. I would love to get seasonally themed ones, like flowers or suns for spring/summer.
Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I have a subscription to Interweave knits, I love Yarn forward in the UK. I have a lot of books in my wishlist on Amazon. I have some patterns in my wishlist on Ravelry, and will update the patterns I have. I love Ysolda's patterns. I already have WLK 1 and 2.
Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn? I would like to improve my color work skills
Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Yes
When is your birthday? November 12
Are you on Ravelry? If so, what’s your ID? Yes, surfdonna
I joined a Ravelry Group called 10 in 2010. The description from the group: "Ten projects in 2010 - a simple idea but a great goal! We have all committed to try and knit ten projects, use ten different yarns (if they overlap, that’s great, if not, you can certainly complete more projects!), and complete them all in 2010!"
I think my list is doable, and a bit modest. I am expecting a baby in just a few short months, so I have to plan for less time. Here is the list of my 10 patterns for 2010.
Hero Pullover (still looking for the yarn, my Ravelympics project)
Ducky Onesie (made with Dale of Norway Stork for my summer baby)
Firebird Socks (kit in stash)
Rufus Textured Cardigan (made with Sumblime organic Merino DK in Stash)
Frances Nursing Shawl (made with my own Skeindalous yarn!)
Raha Scarf (made with Windy Valley Muskox Quiviut from stash, cast on January 8)
Viper Pilot Socks (Made with Arucania Ranco from my stash)
Jasmine (still need to get the yarn, plan to use Rowan 4 ply)
Funky #7 (received pattern and yarn from Love bites Halloween swap, Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool)
Winter Twilight Mitts (will use my Skeindalous yarn again)
There are just a few of the patterns that have a firm deadline, like the summer baby onesie and the Ravelympics project, but most I can work on the others at my own pace throughout the year.
I am still working on the Drop stitch Cable Cardi by Nora Gaughan from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008. It's out of a beautiful teal Berroco Peruvia. I have the body and sleeves knit up I just have 104" of band to knit up. I am also still working on the Oktoberfest socks by Tsock Tsarina. They are really easy, but I have made a few mistakes from not actually ready the instructions. They have been a bit frustrating, but that is my fault and nothing to do with the pattern.
Damson Shawl by Ysolda made with Skeindalous Bettie sock in Digitalis
It a relatively simple shawl that takes one skein of sock yarn. The edging didn't quite turn out like the other Damson's I've seen. Not sure what I did different, but I'm still happy with the results.
Socks for Daren made with my usual formula out of Opal Harry Potter yarn in the Ron Weasley colorway.Big
A quick and simple bolero by Kim Hargreaves in Rowan Big Wool.
Kumera Bed Socks from Interweave Holiday Knits 2009 made in Malabrigo Merino Worsted.
I loved these sock, they took 2 days to knit and are super warm and cozy to wear around the house all winter long.
I am joining the same Dishcloth KAL that LaDonna has signed up for. I can always use more dishcloths and KrisKnits' are amazing.
She will be posting about 10 lines 6 times per month. I still need to get the cotton I will be using for Jan.
I have been very lax in updating my book challenges. I've managed to read quite a bit in the past 2 months, just not blogging about it.
Dusk Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book 12 in the RYOB challenge and book 1 in the R.I.P. challenge. The third book in the watch series.
I finished this on my flight to Italy. Probably not the best of the books, but just as entertaining. It just opened up the lore of the others even more. You discover more about the others with Anton, and how similar both sides are. The lines between good and evil become more fuzzy with each consecutive book.
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book 13 in the RYOB challenge and book 2 in the R.I.P. challenge. I read this in 1 relaxing day in Italy.
This has been my favorite Christopher Moore book so far. I've been wanting to like him more then I have, and this book was the one that made it happen. It's the story of Jody who was turned into a vampire and Tommy who she enlists to help her with things that can only be done in the day. It's funny and sweet with some great characters. I will be picking up the sequel.
Under the Fang by Robert R. McCammon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book 14 in RYOB challenge and book 3 in R.I.P. Challenge.
This is a collection of short stories based on the premise of vampires taking over the world. I have to say it was very hit and miss. some of the stories are interesting, but quite a few are horrible. I've discovered short stories are great to read before bed, I can finish one before falling asleep.
Night Shift by Stephen King
Book 15 in RYOB challenge and book 4 in R.I.P. Challenge. I'm actually going finish all of the books I said I would read for the R.I.P. Challenge.
View all my reviews >>
My final secret pal package for my wonderful partner Frances. She really was a great partner and I apologize for not being a good blogger. She sent me my first baby gift, a little Elmo book, hand knit wash cloth and soap sack with yummy soap in it, 2 Ghirardhelli caramel candy bars (1 of which still exists), Rowan organic cotton (I love that cotton) and beautiful hand dyed yarn from New Jersey.
Thank you so much Frances, you've been a great partner!
First I will start my making my big blog announcement that I'm pregnant. Thirteen weeks now , due April 12. That meant no delicious Italian wine for me. I technically am not suppose to eat smoked deli meat either, but I was in Italy. I ate lots of prosciutto and salami and enjoyed every bite.
Well on to the actual trip. We stayed at Podere Palazzo, a beautiful 5 bedroom villa that is on the edge of the Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany regions. For some reason no one on the trip really took any pictures of the actual house. There are plenty on the website though. There were 9 of us that stayed in the house. Despite the fact that we didn't know 3 of the people before we went it was fantastic and completely free of drama. I came back with some new friends.
I won't bore with the day to day detail since even to me the medeival hilltop towns started to look the same. The picture above is Montepuliciano a lovely town famous for it's wine. I did buy a bottle that the hubby is suppose to keep his grubby mitts off until I can drink it. Nest to it is the town of Pienza which is basically just a long street. Pienza is famous for it's Pecorino cheese. Daren is not a fan of cheese in any way, so when he charged ahead and told us the town smelled really bad we thought he was exaggerating. He wasn't the little street smells of strong cheese. I brought home some of the aged percorino. They serve it with a drizzle of honey which is surprisingly addictive.
We also visited on of the natural parks. I was stunningly beautiful. The 3 hour drive there in the back seat of the small car with 2 other girls was more then I could take. It wasn't just pregnant stomach either, because the other 2 were queasy as well. Our friend Diane wanted to go there because of trails she read about that had beautiful monasteries along the way. When we got there we found out the hike she wanted to do was 5 hours one way and required equipment!
Seeing as non of us were up to the hike we found a road that drove up to the monastery. It wasup a steep windy dirt road and with 5 adult bums in the seats the little car did not want to
cooporate. We gave up on the car half way up when the smell of the clutch was too much to take. Once we got to the monastary we couldn't figure out how to go around or through. There was just a little sign in Italian on the stone next to what looked like should be some sort of buzzer. We ended up ringing the big bell, but no one came. Later we used Babelfish to decode the sign, it said 'it is prayed to abstain itself from the demand to visit l'eremo. So we basically door bell ditched a monastary.
We ended up getting a cooking lesson back at the villa. A chef from a local restaurant came out to give the lesson. She taught us how to make pasta and roll it by hand. We made fried zucchini flowers with a tomaoto bread salad, a roast beef in rock salt with fresh herbs, and a kind of lava cake chocolatey thing.
That's it for now. I'll do another post on Rome later. We have all of our pictures here.
I have to apologize to my secret pal first. There was a bit of a saga just getting to this package. We have a box down the street with the neighborhood's mail boxes. When there is a large package the mail lady puts a key in for a larger box. The key wasn't working, so I called the post office and they came out to look at it. The post office man told me the box was empty and he didn't know where the key came from. So yesterday morning I left a note for my post lady saying the key doesn't work and I was told there is no package. She left a note back saying the lock was broken and she couldn't even get into it. Well this morning there was a knock on the door and a nice post office man handed me my package. Only a week after it was delivered.
On to the goodies. I got Continuous Cables, Rogue, Smith by Ysolda, Malabrigo yarn in my favorite color, cute doggie magnetic paper clips, Toffee chocolate and mint chocolate.
Thank you so much secret pal! This package was awesome.
And I promise I will post about my Italy trip this week.
I've just signed up for the R.I.P. Challenge. It's not a big deal I have a few "spooky" books on the to read shelf. I'm shooting for 4 books in this challenge.
My reading pool is:
1. Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
2. Blood Sucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
3. Night Shift by Stephen King
4. Under the Fang by several authors (short stories)
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book 11 in RYOB challenge. I almost chose Twilight Watch instead, but these Sookie Stackouse books are such a quick read I'll read that one after.
Another quick read with some interesting developments. there is really nothing deep about these books.
Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Book 12 in the RYOB challenge and book 1 in the R.I.P. challenge. The third book in the watch series.
View all my reviews >>
Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book 10 in RYOB challenge. It looks like this is the summer of vampires.
Such a great book. I found it better then Night Watch, though you have to read night watch before Day Watch. The ambiguity of good and evil is so intriguing.
Unlike Night Watch, which is told by Anton Gorodetsky this story is told by 3 different Dark Others. It gives the whole world of the others much more depth then was seen from the eyes of a light other.
These books are a must read for any fans of the fantasy genre.
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
Book 11 in RYOB challenge. I almost chose Twilight Watch instead, but these Sookie Stackouse books are such a quick read I'll read that one after.
View all my reviews >>
The First Sock club I have is America Coast to Coast. Each month you will receive a generous skein based on a natural American landmark. In addition to the yarn you will receive a postcard from the location the colorway is based on and a small notion, such as a stitch marker. The club will start in Oct and continue monthly throughout the year. You can find the club in my Etsy store.
The second club can be found exclusively through Purls of Wisdom yarn store. It will be another monthly club starting in Oct. The colorways will be based on famous quotes. All yarns will available the first of the month. There will a sit and knit around the club members where you can discuss your new yarn. Contact Purls to sign up and get more details, 303-805-3736.
All skeins for both clubs will be hand dyed by me and have at least 420 yards of yarn, enough to make a pair of adult socks. Most yarns will have a wool or animal fiber base. I am currently looking for a vegan sock option, so pm if you are interested and I will post a listing for a animal fiber free sock club.
I had such a great time at Sock Summit. I had a lot of positive feedback on my yarns and a lot of complements on my labels (thanks LaDonna!). It was exhausting and overwhelming, bu hopefully worth it. Ruth took all of the pictures since I do not have a working camera, so I'll link to her post if she ever does post about Sock Summit.
I didn't really have time to take many classes, but I did get take a one hour wonder on knitting ergonomics. I got some great tips on how to alleviate pain in my shoulders and wrists. I met some great people. Marisa who was so sweet and wonderful. Jennifer and Lisa who are amazing fiber artists and so incredibly helpful (I bought 3 Tsarina Tsocks kits). Carrie a Portland native who was super sweet and has the best taste in restaurants. Camille who still seemed to like Ruth and I even in our cranky lack of sleep state. Plus all of the teachers and knitting celebs that Ruth forced me to talk to (in a good way).
Just a quick plea to vote for me in the Ravelry Dye for Glory contest. My entry is under Skeindalous and the colorway is Taffy.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
I gave up on this book 1/2 way though. It's interesting, just too dry for me. I'm not good with nonfiction. I'll finish this on audio book.
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
RYOB book 8. These books make great summer reads. Sookie gets in more trouble with the vamps. Nothing deep or thought provoking
Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book 9 in RYOB. If you love vamps read these books. Otherwise skip them. I really enjoyed this one especially the introdution of the new werewolf. Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Book 10 in RYOB challenge. It looks like this is the summer of vampires.
View all my reviews >>
1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I am a yarn snob. I prefer natural fibers (especially alpaca). I love local yarns. I knit a lot of socks, but don't why you would make socks that are not machine washable.
2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a basket for my straights, a vase for the longer straights. I use a mini wicker chest to hold my circulars and dp's. I'm in desperate need of better options
3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting for over 7 years. I learned in early 2002 and taught myself off the internet. I consider myself intermediate/advanced. I can do most techniques, but I could still learn a lot.
4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Esty favorites
You may have noticed I've changed the name of the blog. Well I am now selling hand-painted yarn and that is the name of my new Etsy shop. I will post pictures of my colorways soon.
I've signed up for SP14, which means I need to blog a lot more. I had such a great time last round I had to do it again. I asked for a US partner this time though, shipping to Germany was painful last time. I couldn't get all of the things I wanted to get her.
A few project pictures until next time:
My lady Bug baby blanket, pattern coming soon. The edging is from Knitting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein, with my own made up short row corners.
The Lady Bug Doll from Twist Collective and the adorable recipient, Chloe.
Still have a few projects on needles, I've been dying a lot more then knitting.
Fool: A Novel by Christopher Moore
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book 5 in RYOB challenge. Funny and bawdy, a retelling of King Lear from the fools perspective. It was engaging and I did finish the book in Just over a week. I still don't find him as funny on page as I did in person.
View all my reviews.
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book 6 in RYOB challenge. I purchased the last 3 books in the challange which does count, but I will start reading books I already have after this book.
I started the book on the flight to the UK. The 2 films based on this book are amazing and I had to get the books. The thing I found most suprising is it could almost be 3 different books. I have to admit I didn't find the books as incredible as the films, but I really enjoyed the book.
A Russian book, translated into English, there are a few references to Moscow life and Russia that I may not have fully understood. The stories are really compelling however and the struggle between light and dark, good and evil is great. Anton's, the protagonist, struggle with the concept of his own lightness and the blurred lines of morality is the best part of the story. I will be ready Day Watch and the other sequels. This s some of the best fantasy writing I've read in a while.
View all my reviews. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
My review
Book 7 in RYOB challenge. I might actually get to my goal of 20 books before the end of the year.
View all my reviews.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
The third book in my RYOB challenge. Ruth and I met the author at a book signing and he was so funny I had to move this up in my reading list.
The story was entertaining and sweet. It wasn't nearly as funny as I had expected after meeting the author. I did enjoy the idea of Jesus studying with Buddhists and Hindus. Over all an entertaining read.
View all my reviews.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book #4 in the RYOB challenge. I received this book as pat of the Love Bites Vampire Valentine swap on Ravelry.
The book is a light, trashy read. Sookie can be very stupid and annoying, but it was fun for what it is. I'll probably read the other book in the series. I happy with the progress on this book. I actually read it in a week. This may be a good sign for getting 20 books read.
View all my reviews. Fool: A Novel by Christopher Moore
My review
Book 5 in RYOB challenge. I purchased this book when we saw Christopher Moore at The Tattered Cover. It's an autographed copy to Ruth. It will be her birthday present from me once I've read it.
I finished the Provincial Waistcoat from the winter 2006 issue if Interweave Knits. It was a great quick knit and I think a flattering shape for most people. I love the buttons for this and I didn't even have to look for them. Jen brought them back from her trip to England (she wants to carry them in Purls). I saw them and knew they were made for this project.
I made some adjustments to the pattern for the back. The way the pattern is written for the larger sizes, the stitch pattern doesn't line up after the 1x1 rib. It also goes to p1, k1, p1 in between the cross over stitch pattern. That means there would be a line of knits over the purls and my eyes just couldn't take it. 
